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No, you cannot. That would be bigamy. You must be legally divorced in order to be able to marry in the U.S. You can file for divorce in the U.S. even if you were married somewhere else, but you must have a legal divorce recognized in the U.S. in order for you to marry in the U.S. Please let me know if you have any additional questions. I would be happy to answer them for you without additional charge, if not, please do not forget to click ACCEPT. That is the only way that I can get paid a small percentage of your deposit. If you do not click accept, the website gets all of your deposit and I get nothing. When you click accept, you are not charged again and we can continue to communicate without additional charge if you have a few follow-up questions. If you would like to request me in the future, just put my name on the subject line. Positive feedback for my service to you (not the state of the law as it is) is always appreciated as well as any bonus if you think I deserve it. Thank you.

Yes, absolutely. As long as you meet the jurisdictional requirements of the location where you live (usually that means living there 6 months or more, even if in the U.S. illegally), you should be able to file for divorce and get it approved by a judge. Please let me know if you have any additional questions and please do not forget to click accept. Thank you.

Then the answer is most likely no, you wouldn't be able to stop a deportation. Unfortunately, the only forgiveness that existed for entering illegally was under INA 245(i) which states that if he had an I-130, I-140 or Labor Certification properly filed for him ON or BEFORE April 30, 2001, AND he could prove that he was inside the U.S. on December 21, 2000 unless the I-130, I-140 or Labor Certification was filed on or before January 14, 1998, and then he could pay a $1000 penalty and adjust status to U.S. Lawful Permanent Residency. If he did not have any of those types of applications filed for him before that date, then he has three options:

1) Wait for an immigration law to come out that will help him. I have high hopes that next year or maybe the following, something good will come out.

2) Apply for Asylum (he had to have done this within the 1st year be being in the U.S. unless there are changed country conditions), Withholding of Removal, Convention Against Torture, or Cancellation of Removal. The first three things are if he fears to return to his home country because he believes that he will be specifically targeted due to his race, religion, nationality, social group or political opinion and that he runs a high risk of great bodily injury, torture, or death as a result. The last, Cancellation, he would have to prove that he has at least 10 years in the U.S. AND he must also prove that if he is deported, a U.S. Citizen or Lawful Permanent Resident that depends upon him will suffer exceptional and extremely unusual hardship. This hardship must be something more than emotional separation hardship or financial hardship, so it is difficult to get.

3) If he marries you, a U.S. Citizen (for love, of course), he could file an I-130 here in the U.S. (which will give him no legal status, but he might be able to get a drivers license with the receipt), but once that I-130 is approved, really the only thing he can do is leave the U.S. and apply to come back in at the U.S. Embassy/consulate in his home country as the spouse of a U.S. Citizen. At that point, they will want to deny him because he entered illegally and stayed. So he would have to apply for an I-601 waiver (forgiveness) and to get this waiver he will have to prove that his spouse will suffer extreme hardship if he is not allowed back in to the U.S. These waivers are very difficult to get. The reason they are difficult to get is because the hardship probably will need to be more than just economic hardship or emotional separation hardship. So because they are difficult to get, no one wants to risk leaving the U.S. and getting stuck outside for 10 years if it isn't granted.

You can look at this link to get more information on I-601 waivers. It is from the U.S. Embassy in Syria, but it is a good description and the process should be similar in all U.S. Embassies.

If you are talking about Obama's new law, it isn't a new law. It is a new procedure but I think it is a trap. Why? Because right now there are millions of undocumented persons in the U.S. that are married to U.S. Citizens and even have U.S. Citizen children but they do not leave because they are afraid to be stuck outside for 10 years. What has changed is that before (and until they implemente the change which will take a year or so), a person had to leave the U.S. and spend around 15 months or so while waiting for their appointment at the U.S. Embassy or Consulate in their home country and then HOPE that they got approved, but the change is that now they say that the same person can apply inside the U.S., supposedly get a pre-approval, but they still have to leave the U.S. and present themselves to the U.S. Embassy or Consulate. So why do I think it is a trap? Because it could very easily be a way to just get those many millions of people to finally leave the U.S. and once they are outside, they can still be denied the waiver even though they have a "pre-approval". I just don't trust that. So at the very least, it will be a year before it is implemented and I would wait at least 6 months or more to see how many of those pre-approvals turn out to be approvals at the end.

Please let me know if you have any additional questions and please do not forget to click accept. Thank you.

I don't think you took the time to read everything I wrote. Please re-read everything and then if you have any questions about it, please let me know. Also, please do not forget to click accept. Thank you.

I will tell you that...the things you have to go through to be an Expert are quite rigorous.

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